If you’ve ever suffered from the nasty burning sensation creeping up your throat, then you’re in good company.  Most of us, at one time or another, have endured heartburn of one degree or another.  Following are 5 tips proven to naturally control your heartburn and give you some relief when you really need it!

 

Maybe you’ve tried the doctors prescriptions and they’ve helped (or maybe they haven’t) but do you know about the possible long term side effects?  There have been studies linking long-term use of heartburn medication to hip fractures and imbalances in stomach bacteria.  So I find it’s always useful to have some options, and natural treatments are usually far less likely to have side effects.  So check these ones out and with a little luck they’ll get your gut behaving itself again! 

 

 

DGL (deglycyrrhizinated liquorice)  First of all don’t ask what deglycyrrhizinated means (or for that matter how to pronounce it).  But what it does is great!  This liquorice derivative will soothe your gullet (oesophagus) helping irritation and damage to the sensitive tissue lining the gullet. 

 

It also works to soothe the stomach lining itself, which can in some cases get irritated by its own stomach acid.  Plus it will help to rebuild and strengthen the mucus lining that is the body’s natural protection both in the oesophagus and the stomach itself.  So this will help in the short term to make you feel better, but also in the long term to support your bodies own systems.

 

Black raspberry powder actually tastes really nice, so even that is a nice change from most medicines (natural or artificial)!  Black raspberry has a long history as a soothing tonic and it works wonderfully to soothe an irritated digestive tract.

 

Some people really like to include it just because it tastes so much better than the other tonics that they are taking, sweeten things up a little bit, and why not when it’s going to help to soothe and calm too!

 

Digestive enzymes are a supplement to the naturally occurring enzymes in your stomach which are often in short supply in people suffering from heartburn.  When they are taken as a supplement they help to reduce or prevent stomach distension (which is the stomach stretching too much and is a clear symptom of heartburn).  This actually helps the Lower Oesophageal Sphincter (say that 10 times quickly once you can pronounce deglycyrrhizinated!) to function more effectively.

 

A properly functioning Lower Oesophageal Sphincter will stop the stomach acid from travelling up your gullet and irritating it.  So this is an easy way to help the body do what it should be doing normally.

 

Mastic gum – not the kind you chew for better breath! – This gum is made from the sap of the plant Pistacia lentiscus.  Mastic gum has been used for centuries to treat stomach problems. 

And before you start wondering how on earth you’re going to get your hands on the sap of some Mediterranean tree, you can now get it in capsule form. Taken after meals it will help to reduce your heartburn symptoms, and you can sleep better knowing that sap is a renewable resource!  

 

Now we’ve all been told that calcium is an important part of our diet but in this case it’s specifically useful to help close the lower oesophageal sphincter (as mentioned above) This is really useful as that effectively prevents the acid form moving up your throat.

 

Now not too many people are going to just chow down on calcium.  So you want to get it in a powdered form and have it with some yoghurt or honey.  By having this after your meal you’ll help to prevent even more of the symptoms that are plaguing you.

 

Now all of these remedies are natural and should be available from your local health food store.  None of these are supposed to replace prescribed medical treatments but can add to your number of options when looking for an effective treatment for that horrible, burning feeling creeping up your throat.

 

I wish you the best of luck and if you want to get continuing info, check out my blog at helpyourheartburn.blogspot.com   All the best and may your heartburn soon be a thing of the past.